Software Engineering Job Trends in Cheshire

Software Engineering
North West > Cheshire

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in Cheshire requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 23 19
Rank change year-on-year -9 -4 +23
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 47 33 95
As % of all permanent jobs in Cheshire 3.18% 6.50% 9.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.97% 7.24% 11.42%
Number of salaries quoted 40 19 79
10th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £36,000
25th Percentile £50,000 £43,750 £50,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -19.23% +18.18%
75th Percentile £77,000 £56,427 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £69,850 £96,500
North West median annual salary £67,500 £65,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +3.85% +8.33% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
Cheshire

Software Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Cheshire.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,184 456 832
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Cheshire 80.16% 89.76% 83.87%
Number of salaries quoted 519 218 670
10th Percentile £27,400 £32,125 £24,807
25th Percentile £35,000 £39,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,720 £48,306 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +0.86% +1.70% -
75th Percentile £60,000 £60,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £81,250
North West median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -8.90%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Cheshire.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Software Engineering
Salary Trend in Cheshire

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Software Engineering.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Salary Histogram in Cheshire

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in Cheshire over the 6 months to 20 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineering in Cheshire

Software Engineering
Job Locations in Cheshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Engineering within the Cheshire region over the 6 months to 20 February 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Chester +7 20 £50,000 -11.50% 23
Warrington -5 8 £60,000 +14.29% 14
Knutsford -11 6 £97,500 +30.87% 1
Alderley Edge -3 5 £100,000 +110.53%
Runcorn -7 3 £40,000 - 3
Crewe -8 1 - - 2
Software Engineering
North West

Software Engineering
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 2 (4.26%) Confluence
2 1 (2.13%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 5 (10.64%) Azure
2 3 (6.38%) AWS
3 2 (4.26%) Azure AI
3 2 (4.26%) Azure Cognitive Services
3 2 (4.26%) GCP
3 2 (4.26%) GitHub
3 2 (4.26%) Microsoft Copilot
3 2 (4.26%) Power Automate
3 2 (4.26%) Power Platform
3 2 (4.26%) PowerApps
4 1 (2.13%) AWS CloudFormation
4 1 (2.13%) Cloud Computing
4 1 (2.13%) GitHub Actions
4 1 (2.13%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.13%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (4.26%) Power BI
1 2 (4.26%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (4.26%) Cypress.io
1 2 (4.26%) Jenkins
1 2 (4.26%) JIRA
General
1 7 (14.89%) Finance
2 6 (12.77%) Banking
3 5 (10.64%) Manufacturing
4 4 (8.51%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (6.38%) Billing
5 3 (6.38%) Financial Institution
5 3 (6.38%) Social Skills
6 1 (2.13%) Automotive
6 1 (2.13%) Electronics
6 1 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 17 (36.17%) Software Engineer
2 12 (25.53%) Lead
3 8 (17.02%) Senior
4 7 (14.89%) Developer
4 7 (14.89%) Embedded Engineer
4 7 (14.89%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 6 (12.77%) Java Developer
6 5 (10.64%) Control Systems Engineer
6 5 (10.64%) Java Software Developer
6 5 (10.64%) Senior Systems Engineer
6 5 (10.64%) Software Developer
6 5 (10.64%) Systems Engineer
6 5 (10.64%) Technical Leader
7 4 (8.51%) Architect
8 3 (6.38%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
8 3 (6.38%) Payments Architect
9 2 (4.26%) Lead DevOps
9 2 (4.26%) Senior Software Engineer
10 1 (2.13%) Head of Engineering
10 1 (2.13%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.26%) .NET
1 2 (4.26%) Jest
1 2 (4.26%) Model Context Protocol
1 2 (4.26%) React
2 1 (2.13%) CSS
2 1 (2.13%) CSS3
2 1 (2.13%) DPDK
2 1 (2.13%) eBPF
2 1 (2.13%) EDI
2 1 (2.13%) HTML
2 1 (2.13%) HTML5
2 1 (2.13%) NETCONF
2 1 (2.13%) Node.js
2 1 (2.13%) Playwright
2 1 (2.13%) Redux
2 1 (2.13%) RESTCONF
2 1 (2.13%) RESTful
2 1 (2.13%) Spring
2 1 (2.13%) Spring Boot
2 1 (2.13%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 5 (10.64%) Industry 4.0
1 5 (10.64%) SCADA
2 3 (6.38%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 3 (6.38%) IoT
2 3 (6.38%) SWIFT Messaging Network
3 1 (2.13%) Cloud Native
3 1 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (2.13%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (2.13%) Management Information System
3 1 (2.13%) NVMe
3 1 (2.13%) Online Banking
3 1 (2.13%) Product Ownership
3 1 (2.13%) Public Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (21.28%) Agile
2 8 (17.02%) Technical Leadership
3 6 (12.77%) AI
3 6 (12.77%) Open Source
4 5 (10.64%) CI/CD
4 5 (10.64%) Digital Transformation Programme
4 5 (10.64%) Problem-Solving
4 5 (10.64%) Smart Manufacturing
5 4 (8.51%) Collaborative Working
5 4 (8.51%) Mentoring
5 4 (8.51%) Validation
6 3 (6.38%) Business Analysis
6 3 (6.38%) DevOps
6 3 (6.38%) Fintech
6 3 (6.38%) Full-Stack Development
6 3 (6.38%) GAP Analysis
6 3 (6.38%) Migration
6 3 (6.38%) Requirements Gathering
6 3 (6.38%) Scrum
6 3 (6.38%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 7 (14.89%) Java
2 5 (10.64%) SQL
3 2 (4.26%) C#
3 2 (4.26%) JavaScript
4 1 (2.13%) C
4 1 (2.13%) C++
4 1 (2.13%) Python
4 1 (2.13%) TypeScript
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (6.38%) ISO 20022
1 3 (6.38%) SEPA
1 3 (6.38%) TARGET2
2 2 (4.26%) QA
System Software
1 3 (6.38%) Docker
2 1 (2.13%) Firmware
2 1 (2.13%) KVM
2 1 (2.13%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 3 (6.38%) Kubernetes
2 1 (2.13%) Ansible
2 1 (2.13%) Grafana
2 1 (2.13%) Terraform
Vendors
1 2 (4.26%) Microsoft
2 1 (2.13%) Google
2 1 (2.13%) SaltStack